Naruto Shippuden Episode 253: We’ll All Come Home

Konan reveals that her Kami no Shisha no Jutsu has enough paper bombs to last for ten minutes of non-stop explosions, which means Tobi’s dimension phasing, which lasts only five minutes, is ineffective. However, Tobi’s use of Izanagi at the cost of one of his Sharingan allows him to escape and stab Konan with a pipe, defeating her without much effort a few moments later and forcing her to reveal Nagato’s location under a genjutsu. As Konan’s dead body lies on the water, a blood-soaked sheet of paper is carried away by the wind and covers up her old hop-in card at the Ame Orphans hideout, fulfilling their promise to all come home one day.

Impression

I had to suppress the urge to write something poetic about the endless rain in Amegakure finally ending when Konan proclaims her beliefs, which was made even more symbolic with the rainbow in the background and all their talk of Tobi symbolizing darkness while Naruto is light. We can see a lot more of his face in clearer detail compared to the manga, and I still believe he is somehow Obito, regardless of the whole timeline issue and how it’s not technically possible. I felt so sorry for Konan after Tobi just pops up behind her and goes “…dead?” And then she gets run through with a pipe, realizing that she’s been trolled by Izanagi.

Trolololol

You’d expect Tobi’s Izanagi to be much stronger than Danzo’s – Danzo should have only used Izanagi to save his life, but the fact he only used it to evade Sasuke’s attacks suggested he actually couldn’t control it to that extent. And now not only does Tobi have a Sharingan, but he has a Rinnegan as well to replace his lost eye. Overpowered much?

The trick with the hop-in cards was done beautifully, from originally being a method of sensing potential threats from enemies to being symbolic towards their reunion that one day, the Ame Orphans and Jiraiya would meet up again at that hideout. Though that never literally happened again, I felt that the fact that all their bodies are in Amegakure (Nagato and Yahiko at the tomb, Konan and Jiraiya in the sea) does hold some merit. Konan, why did you have to die… *sobsob* At least sacrifice yourself to stop Tobi getting the Rinnegan or something…okay maybe that’d be a bit over the top.

So that’s it for this arc then – the Akatsuki are pretty much all gone, and Tobi + Zetsu can hardly be called a criminal organization. It seems Studio Pierrot will be starting off the war with the next episode, which gives me hopes that this show won’t follow its trend of Plot — Filler — Plot — Filler etc. Kabuto inserting his mind control tag into Deidara (who shouldn’t even have a body at all) as they go to “collect” Naruto in the preview marks the unofficial start of the war – the whole fight is over him and Killer Bee after all.